2017 Recruiting Class Discussion
Posted: May 13th, 2016, 3:13 pm
Way overdue to start this thread, but I can steal an excuse from someone and say I haven't had access to a real computer for quite a while and couldn't cut and paste links on the Android tablet I was using.
We have offered 5 players for the class of 17 and 4 of them have already verbally committed:
Barber of course, is the son of our AD and will not need a scholarship because he will receive free tuition as the child of a university employee. He is primarily a 3 point shooter, who had some big games as a Soph., hitting 9 3s on 2 separate occasions, but it looks like opponents have been focusing on contesting his perimeter shot this year. Hopefully he will expand his game and make them pay for that next year.
Cuffee is a strong, athletic swing player who can shoot, defend and rebound. He is most often praised by evaluators as having a "high-major motor" His Poca HS team won 60 straight games against in-state opponents before losing in the state semis this year. Cuffee had 6 D1 offers before committing very early to the Flames last Fall, including a Big 12 offer from Texas Tech. He almost certainly would have had more had he not made such a strong commit so early. WVU among other High Major programs, was very interested. Parents are both Liberty alum and he is very much on board with the school mission. He plays on the same AAU team as recruit Jarrod West, and they are currently the top ranked team on the Big Shots circuit. He was named outstanding player at a recent showcase in Raleigh with coach McKay in attendance.
McDowell comes from a family of outstanding athletes, including his brother Quinn, who scored over 1600 points for W&M and is now playing pro ball in Europe. Sister is a current LU student. His numbers at Moeller HS don't jump off the page, but they had a deep and talented team. He was recruited personally by RMK. Excellent shooter who can handle it well enough to play SG but can also rebound and defend the SF position.
Newton has been on our radar since he was a 14 year old Freshman and already 6'11". His mom and uncle are both Liberty alums. He was offered a scholarship by DL following that Freshman year. His only other actual offers came from App State and Longwood, but he had significant interest from HM programs including UVA and VT and is the highest rated player in this class with 4 stars from ESPN and 3 each from Scout and Rivals. Brendan's HS team Faith Christian plays in a conference where competition is weak, but they entered some tourneys this year where they played stronger opponents. FCA went 32-1 and won both state and national championships in their division. Brendan played AAU for Team Loaded the last 2 years and against better competition he was consistently a game changer on the defensive end. This year he will play for Boo Williams. He is a work in progress on offense, but has some good fundamentals, including the fact that he has learned to keep the ball high and pass out of double teams.
West is coached by his dad, who played for WVU, at Notre Dame HS. He can score if necessary, as evidenced by his 23ppg as a HS Jr, but has built his AAU reputation as a facilitator and defender. He has been voted best on-ball defender in multiple AAU events. He is the AAU teammate of LU commit Elijah Cuffee and their BigShotsElite team is the top rated squad on that circuit, having decisively beaten teams with higher profile prospects. One evaluator said of West that "sooner or later he is going to go head to head with one of these guys with high major offers and some stars will be re-distributed." West has offers from Longwood, Winthrop, JMU, Marshall and ECU as well as Liberty. I honestly don't think we have to worry about any of them, but WVU has shown interest, and it could be tough to turn down a chance to play for dad's alma matre in the Big 12. Jarrod is an outspoken Christian who would fit right in at LU.
Newton may be almost as tall as a giraffe, but the elephant in the room for this recruiting class is the scholarship situation. We will have 12 scholarship players on next years team, but no Seniors, so that would leave only one schollie for 2017, and if we can land West, we will need 4. We can pick up one if a proposed NCAA rule change goes through which would enable us to not count Scottie James against our limit. His mother is a professor at LU and he can get free tuition, but because he was on an athletic scholarship at Bradley, under the current rule any type of scholarship would cause him to be a "counter". If the change goes through, that would give us 2. Where would the other 2 come from? the likeliest scenario for 1 would involve Ryan Kemrite, who redshirted as a FR and will graduate next year. He could return for his final year as a grad student, or he could pursue other opportunities, which might include a graduate assistant job with the team. A lot may depend on how he plays next year. It's hard to imagine our most experienced player could become "expendible", but it looks like that is just how much talent is being upgraded.
While the only thing that matters is how they play when they arrive on campus, the way Ritchie and his staff has gone about putting this class together is extraordinary. They only made offers to 5 players. By way of comparison, Winthrop and High Point have each offered 23. It is only May and 4 of those 5 have committed with the other likely leaning to LU while waiting on possible high major offers.
BSC commitments for 2017:
Liberty....................................................................4
10 other BSC teams combined ....................................0
Not bad
We have offered 5 players for the class of 17 and 4 of them have already verbally committed:
- Jay Barber 6'4" SG Lynchburg, VA (committed)
Elijah Cuffee 6'4" G/F Poca, WV (committed)
Keegan McDowell 6'5" G/F Cincinnati, OH (committed)
Brendan Newton 7'3" C Roanoke, VA (committed)
Jarrod West 5'11" PG Clarksburg, WV
Barber of course, is the son of our AD and will not need a scholarship because he will receive free tuition as the child of a university employee. He is primarily a 3 point shooter, who had some big games as a Soph., hitting 9 3s on 2 separate occasions, but it looks like opponents have been focusing on contesting his perimeter shot this year. Hopefully he will expand his game and make them pay for that next year.
Cuffee is a strong, athletic swing player who can shoot, defend and rebound. He is most often praised by evaluators as having a "high-major motor" His Poca HS team won 60 straight games against in-state opponents before losing in the state semis this year. Cuffee had 6 D1 offers before committing very early to the Flames last Fall, including a Big 12 offer from Texas Tech. He almost certainly would have had more had he not made such a strong commit so early. WVU among other High Major programs, was very interested. Parents are both Liberty alum and he is very much on board with the school mission. He plays on the same AAU team as recruit Jarrod West, and they are currently the top ranked team on the Big Shots circuit. He was named outstanding player at a recent showcase in Raleigh with coach McKay in attendance.
McDowell comes from a family of outstanding athletes, including his brother Quinn, who scored over 1600 points for W&M and is now playing pro ball in Europe. Sister is a current LU student. His numbers at Moeller HS don't jump off the page, but they had a deep and talented team. He was recruited personally by RMK. Excellent shooter who can handle it well enough to play SG but can also rebound and defend the SF position.
Newton has been on our radar since he was a 14 year old Freshman and already 6'11". His mom and uncle are both Liberty alums. He was offered a scholarship by DL following that Freshman year. His only other actual offers came from App State and Longwood, but he had significant interest from HM programs including UVA and VT and is the highest rated player in this class with 4 stars from ESPN and 3 each from Scout and Rivals. Brendan's HS team Faith Christian plays in a conference where competition is weak, but they entered some tourneys this year where they played stronger opponents. FCA went 32-1 and won both state and national championships in their division. Brendan played AAU for Team Loaded the last 2 years and against better competition he was consistently a game changer on the defensive end. This year he will play for Boo Williams. He is a work in progress on offense, but has some good fundamentals, including the fact that he has learned to keep the ball high and pass out of double teams.
West is coached by his dad, who played for WVU, at Notre Dame HS. He can score if necessary, as evidenced by his 23ppg as a HS Jr, but has built his AAU reputation as a facilitator and defender. He has been voted best on-ball defender in multiple AAU events. He is the AAU teammate of LU commit Elijah Cuffee and their BigShotsElite team is the top rated squad on that circuit, having decisively beaten teams with higher profile prospects. One evaluator said of West that "sooner or later he is going to go head to head with one of these guys with high major offers and some stars will be re-distributed." West has offers from Longwood, Winthrop, JMU, Marshall and ECU as well as Liberty. I honestly don't think we have to worry about any of them, but WVU has shown interest, and it could be tough to turn down a chance to play for dad's alma matre in the Big 12. Jarrod is an outspoken Christian who would fit right in at LU.
Newton may be almost as tall as a giraffe, but the elephant in the room for this recruiting class is the scholarship situation. We will have 12 scholarship players on next years team, but no Seniors, so that would leave only one schollie for 2017, and if we can land West, we will need 4. We can pick up one if a proposed NCAA rule change goes through which would enable us to not count Scottie James against our limit. His mother is a professor at LU and he can get free tuition, but because he was on an athletic scholarship at Bradley, under the current rule any type of scholarship would cause him to be a "counter". If the change goes through, that would give us 2. Where would the other 2 come from? the likeliest scenario for 1 would involve Ryan Kemrite, who redshirted as a FR and will graduate next year. He could return for his final year as a grad student, or he could pursue other opportunities, which might include a graduate assistant job with the team. A lot may depend on how he plays next year. It's hard to imagine our most experienced player could become "expendible", but it looks like that is just how much talent is being upgraded.
While the only thing that matters is how they play when they arrive on campus, the way Ritchie and his staff has gone about putting this class together is extraordinary. They only made offers to 5 players. By way of comparison, Winthrop and High Point have each offered 23. It is only May and 4 of those 5 have committed with the other likely leaning to LU while waiting on possible high major offers.
BSC commitments for 2017:
Liberty....................................................................4
10 other BSC teams combined ....................................0
Not bad
